"God will not respond to the invocation of the arrogant and
pretenders who accuse others with the ugliest vice and unsubstantiated
charges," said Tantawi during a religious celebration Monday attended
by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and broadcast live on television.

"The Islamic Sharia (law) subjected all the people to be equally
punished for the crime of libel which is a flagrant aggression on the
virtuous men and women," he added. Tantawi's comments were published in
Al-Akhbar newspaper Wednesday and in Sawt Al-Azhar, the mouthpiece of
Al-Azhar, the following day.

[…]

During his speech, Tantawi seemed to argue for serious punishment as
well, quoting a verse from the Quran saying that those who accused
women of adultery without necessary proof were to receive "80
floggings."

He said his example involved women but added that "libel is also
applicable to men … this punishment is set by God to protect the
honor of men and women from bad talk that hurts dignity and honor."

Nice ehh?

You know why we call him "Sayyed OK" in Egypt? Because before he became Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar (appointed by President Mubarak) he used to be Egypt's mufti, and he was famous for his ability to issue any Fatwa you would like as long as you pay him. The man is such a joke, that during the presidential elections he issued a Fatwa- when the opposition was trying to get the people to boycott the elections in order to say it was illegitimate- that egyptians have to go and particpate in the elections as their islamic duty and that it's haram not to do so, because that's suppressing testimony and god forbids that and hates those who suppress their testimony. No one, of course, listened. This is the man, who under his reign, Al Azhar became a place for breast-feeding fatwas and debates over if an actor gets married on TV, is he counted as married in real life, amongst other fun fantastic very relevant debates. And now he wants to lash journalists who libel the good honorable men of this government 80 lashes. 80.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to borrow the good sheik and implement his merciful punishment upon his own backside? I mean, someone could borrow him for awhile, and then make a nice little film of him being “disciplined”, and Mr. Sandmonkey, I would be only to happy to do the implementation of his fatwa, and then we could upload the video of the kind sheik getting his bitchy little payback, kind of like an instructional video. Ahhh, a girl can dream, can’t she?

charlie 316

AJ

November 6, 2007 at 11:03 pm

I don’t really understand the Sheikh’s point of view. Not that I am okay with lashings under any circumstances, but he says it is legal against both journalists who slander the government AND men who accuse women of adultery without conclusive evidence? The first seems to be so narrow-minded and a total repression of free speech, while the other (albeit in a really weird, stupid way) protects the rights of the “minority” (aka women). It just seems weird to me that he came to these two decisions, because their backgrounds seem at such odds. But with this said, no matter what he is defending, lashing definitely isn’t okay!!